Yatsufusa's movie Reviews on Newgrounds

[Autopilot]

(I am sorry that this review sounds somewhat discombobulated. I've been making 'attempts' for over 2 weeks now. 'Every time' I start typing it I get tempted and press play 'again and again and again' - making it hard to focus on what I want to convey. I clearly lack discipline... ;3 )

From a technical standpoint, the video is put together very well. Both editing and animation are very clean and there is a constant visual 'flow' taking the audience along with it. I appreciate the love for the little details in the video: The use of shadows and lighting, despite the simpler style you use for characters; the 'Poltergeist' character hidden in the background (the "buttdancer"); the use of perspective for the skyscrapers...

The contrast, both on the road as well as in the lyrics, is very effective: The protagonist is trapped in a vehicle that is quite obviously out of control; yet none of the other drivers (who are also "on autopilot") even 'acknowledge' the situation - akin to the toll gate that is a mere automaton restricted to preprogrammed choices.

I hope you won't take offense to me putting it this way:
"Have I lost control // Or have I never had it?"
Not to over-analyze every single verse, but to me, this entire song is just one big metaphor for life. And while that's pretty dark, I love that about your song.

The only aspect I 'didn't' like was the triple use of the chorus at the end (one of them to complement the 'supporter-scroll'). It makes the song's lyrics appear more monotone than they actually are.

My apologies for not working harder on a more serviceable review, but I do not know if I will still be around on Newgrounds in a month's time - and I _certainly_ won't give YT another chance. (I'm not "quitting NG" over something sinister. I just need a longer break from internet-stuff.)

[MOON PSA (Short)]

I wasn't a particular fan of the VHS-effect, but the animation was surprisingly smooth and the lip-syncing was done very well.

In terms of story: The fact that many of the people depicted were either extraterrestrials or robots was not 'lost' on me, but I feel that that the deeper meaning behind that could have been incorporated better into the animation to make the skit more 'your own'. The reactions of the alienated kids were a good step, but I would have preferred a bit more 'Transformative Use', if you will. ;)

I am usually not a fan of animation made as animation for a professionally produced scene that already exists (or some YouTubers). It's borrowed/transplanted humor so even if the animation compliments it nicely, it usually feels like a lesser version of the original. Although you did a good job this is also the case here.
But that being said...: "Dude, that was a _superb_ choice of audio!" The sketch is from 1997, so unlike animations set to a conversation of popular YouTubers that happened 1 to 3 months ago, most of the people who are going to see this will be unfamiliar with it when they first watch it - or it has been so long that only vaguely remember the original.
But above all else: The timing for the release could hardly have been better. This very much reflects what an international audience expects when an elected official from the US steps in front of a microphone for the next 4-ish years.

I would have preferred if the video had credits, so it would be a bit harder for others to claim that 'they' have made this. Not just your name/online handle but also the credits for the original audio. At the time of writing, the description only credits the source as "Original Audio: Mr. Show".
You have lots of space to spare. My non-committal recommendation would be something that looks like this:
"Original Audio: Mr. Show with Bob and David (Series, 1995 to 1998), (S03E06: Goin' on a Holiday) (1997) (Sketch: 'Blowing Up The Moon')"
The description could also have a link to the website where you've got it from or at least a Wikipedia/IMDB-link embedded (like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._Show_with_Bob_and_David#Season_3_(1997) )

One last thing of note in terms of presentation would be the tag situation. You used #comedy, but it's already in one of the two Comedy categories on Newgrounds, so that seems a little redundant. And you are using #animation... On a website that hosts 99.x% animations in their Movie Portal. I'm sure you can do better. (You have a limit of 12 tags.)
Which tools you used would also be helpful information for other animators.

I hope this helps.

itsTKen responds:

This helps so much, thank you for the awesome feedback! Still gettin used to the site so this is very insightful!

[The mystery of the wet erase photo bottle.]

While I noticed some improvements, what I would have to say about 'The mystery of the wet erase photo bottle.' boils down to what I wrote in my review for 'How castles were built.' ( https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/966853 ). It's 'flawed, but interesting'.

I will not deny that more people will watch your submissions if you animate them - even if you do so on your current level. But you are a good narrator and also rather good at either 'finding interesting things to talk about' or 'making things interesting' - maybe a bit of both.

While I am fully aware that you aren't made out of time, I'd like to encourage you think about the options Newgrounds offers you:
- Look at a few tutorials. Maybe some of the ones I collected in the past will be helpful to you ( https://www.newgrounds.com/collection/330234/guides-tutorials-other-help ).
- Ask other animators over in the 'Animation' sub-forum ( https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/forum/17 ) for specific pointers what aspects of animation to look into next.
- Consider focusing on the vocal part of your works and give the Audio Portal a chance.
- Consider collaborating with a more experienced animator.

You can look for collaborators by using Newgrounds' Collab system:
https://www.newgrounds.com/collab
https://www.newgrounds.com/collab/edit-list

Or you could browse the 'Voice Acting' sub-forum:
https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/forum/23

You are not alone here. Take advantage of that. ;)

[How castles were built.]

That was 'something'. :)

Let's start with the visual elements... I am not a kind enough person to lie: Your "animation" barely deserves to be called that and your drawings are very rough. Your Art Portal submissions look better, so I presume you are still getting used to the software you use to animate or that you were on a deadline of sorts. I am not sure what the bit at 2:08 is meant to represent, but to the uninitiated it looks as if you just gave up. On top of that, there's some very noticeable artifacting.
Overall, I get the impression that you might benefit from getting yourself a better program to animate with. Here's a selection of what NG recommends in this regard (many of those are free-to-use):
https://www.newgrounds.com/wiki/creator-resources/animation-resources

Now for the audio: As unimpressed as I was with the visuals, both your voice acting and the recording were done well. The sudden stop before you finished your last sentence was really unfortunate. There was occasional rustling of papers from turning the pages of the script, some cuts were made too hasty, and some minor issues with your pacing occurred with longer passages... But other than that your delivery was very stable and easy to understand. Considering that this was your first video with audio, this was impressive. ('And' you picked a good volume - something beginners often ignore.)
I would even go so far to recommend you to look into voice acting. Maybe consider recording other edutainment texts, poetry, or short stories that are no longer under copyright. The works of H. P. Lovecraft are popular choices and will always find an audience, but if you're hardcore, you could read 'The Communist Manifesto' by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ;)

Lastly: The writing. When I was greeted with a 2-frame animation at the start of the video I did _not_ expect that I would watch this video to completion. Sometimes you do not know what you want until you find it. And it seems 'today' I wanted to be educated about the logistics of building a medieval castle. ;3

GoldenWeaveAnimation responds:

Thank you for th' honest review!

I will take your criticisms into consideration, thank you for the resources link.

The animation is flawed, I used flipanim to do it, and there where numerous times when a large chunk of animation frames where not saved and I had to hastily remake a bunch of frames that looked better before they where deleted.

I was on a time crunch, I had to publish this before January ended. I succeeded in that, with less than half an hour to spare before midnight.

[Koishi Project Trailer]

(Normally, this isn't the kind of review I would leave. I would talk about the way the story is conveyed, talk about the message, get a little artsy at times, give helpful pointers when I'm able to...)

I loved how the movie drew me in immediately. Everything's great: The pacing, the animation, the characters' expressions... I mean: It's an _eye_! One character is essentially _an_eye_ and with just a few lines you made it emote so clearly and strongly.
I'm a pretty silent person, but at some point I exclaimed: "Oh, this is nice. This is _actually_ nice!"

And all that from just 'a trailer'. I'm looking forward to the release of 'Koishi Project', no matter if it's this year, the next, or 2050... If I wasn't already following you I would be 'now'. :)

I already suspect that the greatest tragedy of its release will be that we cannot rate it higher than 5 stars.

Edit: @Xenomorphian: Just wanted to confirm: You are absolutely correct. I just know "Touhou" as "a thing that has fanart done from time to time", so I have little to no chance recognizing any of it when I see it. Since it doesn't change my initial reaction as an uninformed person, I'll leave the rest of my review as is, though. ;)

[Yolk Town : Demo]

I feel like there is a 'message' here somewhere... :)

You did a good job with the yolk, directing the viewers' focus where you want it. Actually: You did a good job with the movements of 'all' the individual parts. The camera panning was very smooth and well paced - not too fast, not too quick. I felt as if the amount of egg white was a bit gratuitous, but that was probably intended and on pars with similar scenes that use the red juice instead of the white one.

If I may get 'artsy' for a moment: The kitchen background used was eye-pleasing in its own right (nice kettle!). The transition from the more complex 'toaster backdrop' to the bleaker and empty 'single-use napkin holder backdrop' goes very well with what is about to happen...

And yeah: _Really_ liked the message. But that being said, the animation is what it is: A short demonstration of your capabilities as an animator - without a story arc or depth to the character(s).

I'm looking forward to your future submissions. Which is to say: Welcome to Newgrounds! You've gotten yourself your first fan here. :)

NineFoldCreations responds:

You’ve just made my night, thank you so much for your kind words🥺.

[Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in: All's Well That Ends Well!]

I am SHOCKED and IN AWE about how good this animation is and how well you have captured the 'wacky' style of that era: The animation, story, scene direction... 'even the title' feels like it was from that time. Even as somebody who knows pretty much nothing about 'Oswald the Lucky Rabbit' watching this today feels surreal - in a good way. Thank you for sharing this 'time machine moment' with us! :)

It feels pedantic to mention, but it is the only suggestion for improvement I can offer: Sound effects and (piano?) music would have made this submission perfect. (Maybe you can find somebody here on Newgrounds who would collaborate with you in that regard...)

[Ed's Awesome Animate Tutorial]

I'm not even an animator. When I pressed 'play' I merely wanted to check if this was good enough to recommend to animators. I thought I'd just watch the intro and skip passages that get boring or too technical... Now I've watched the whole thing start to finish and even had a good time.

This video has moved the bar for how I rate tutorials. You are now personally responsible for all those low ratings I'm going to hand out going forward. ;)

As an aside: 18:34-19:00 should automatically play when a user makes their very first upload.

[Social Media Generation]

I like both you message and your stile. That you gave proper credit to the original source is also something that became a rare feat amongst authors. After visiting Zenpencils and looking at the original I must say you did a good job animating the scene stills. You have a good feeling for pace and your dubbing came out very nicely.

Surprisingly, what I like the most about this is that many reviewers actually reflect on you message. A good portion of them don't even seem to have Twitter or Facebook accounts - like myself. Over time, I've developed an expectation that, while user's overall reception of critical work such as yours is very positive, most don't 'think' about it. And I'm so very glad I'm not proven right this time.